"The bees. Yeah…The bees can’t do anything if nature is not providing."

It was Statia Week’s Night of Culture when I first met Celly. It started to rain during the concert and we all sought refuge in the MYF tent. It's plastic purple sheet covered us almost completely. My two colleagues from the after school program where hosting the tent and relaxed in their chairs. It was not until we’d hang out more that I would find out that Celly and my colleague are siblings. He is the brother of my colleague and the uncle of one of the students. It made sense, as he, his sister and his niece continuously referred to his mother as the lady of culture on separate occasions. I’ve been told by them that she keeps guard of what is truly Statian in a way that described her like a woman who knows the answer to every question. “What is Statia’s culture?” I asked Celly when he visited my house. “Statia culture is uhm, the culture that we had back then”, he answered. Walking along with him through the unexpected sites of the beehives he keeps would help me to imagine the Statia he was describing.

“..I was mostly a kid who was always to myself. And I never really used to talk. If we would go out, they aksed me if we go out and I would go with them but I am always...the group is here and I am there. And everyone is walking so I am in the back of the crowd, walking. So I am always to myself. So I was always a person just in my zone...[.] It's like comfort zone in a sense..[.] I like to go [weird places] in the botanical garden by myself, but that is in the night. So it's dark over there and I feel...it feels good. I go to the quill, to the top. I walk up there by myself, I sit on top Panorama point. I just sit up there in the dark. It's really nice when the full moon is out, when the moon is bright. It's so bright, you don't even need a flashlight. [A nearby rooster crows in the background.] And there is also nice insects, different type of insects that come out in the night so you can also see as well.”

He described black and white TV’s that had antenna’s and stone ovens that were used outside. "That was Statia. "And what is Statia about today?" I asked. "Pffff, money. Everyone is hustling because of the different changes, a lot of things changed. Back then taxes was not like how it is now. And then you have different bills you have to deal with now and everyone got so caught up in that realm.”

"We used to jump on dirt bikes and stuff and just go off trails going into the bushes and stuff. We eliminate the bees and we take the honey and all that and we would just enjoy ourselves. We take it home, we squeeze it out and we put it in bottles and we used that for like, putting on our barbecue. And we mix it with sauce and stuff like that." He slurps. "Ow", licking his fingers: "we had a treat! We just did that a couple years you know, I was just a freelancer I was just having fun during that phrase of my life. I wasn't really serious with anything, you know, just living life..[.]. And then I start doing my read up on them and you know, I started realise the dying of bees and all that stuff. Getting involved more, reading more, more aware.”

"I decided I wanna get involved with other beekeepers. went online and found a guy, so i just saw a number and just called. It was a guy in the States and I called and he just picked up. And he said 'Oh. I can link you in. If you have a place to stay I can link you in'. It also helped them as well...I realised that the material that they used of beekeeping is totally different from what I use. [.] I talked to a guy, well you know, he is my cousin. He told me it is not good to put the bees inside of treated wood because of whatever chemicals the treated stuff is in and it may probably hamper with the honey and all that stuff. I said, that don't make any sense, what he saying then ...[.] because I remove hives a lot of places out of people roof. This is the material here with the lines in it [he points to the outside wall of the house we are sitting in front of. But the bees are perfectly fine inside of there. So I said this makes more sense and I made all these boxes out of that material. Right now my goal is to build 300 hives, minimum [on Statia]."

"Its like a drug. They just can do without it, they just want the stuff. I would say the majority of this island want this stuff. The majority of Saba wants this stuff. Sint Maarten the same way. Right now, I am trying to figure out what's going on at St. Barths. Because my stuff reached all the way Canada, it reached Holland, England. It went really far: Florida, New York, uh. And they love the stuff!